Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Here are some race results involving Villanova track alumni from March 2011. Cheers to Steve Curley, Lindsay Kos, and Laura O'Sullivan (see above) for their performances at the New York City Half Marathon. Kudos as well go to Ellen Dougherty (photo below), who won the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K on March 19th.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Richie Corcoran, a recent graduate of the Villanova track program, came second this weekend at the 42nd Dunboyne 4 Mile road race in County Meath, Ireland, not far from Dublin. Corcoran (bib 8 above) ran the 4 miler in a healthy 18:48 (4:42 pace). Corcoran is the last Irishman to compete for Villanova (see post below on the demise of the Irish pipeline). Mark Kenneally, whose best career result was an 8th place finish at the 2009 European cross country championship, won the race. Over 1000 runners competed, with the top 20 finishers listed below:

Monday, March 28, 2011

At this year's NCAA indoor championship meet, David McCarthy of Providence College was the only Irish athlete to qualify for the meet. The long line of Irish athletes coming to the States on track scholarships -- epitomized by the great Irish pipeline established by Villanova's legendary coach Jumbo Elliott -- has evaporated. Ireland's leading track and field journalist Ian O'Riordan interviewed Villanova's Marcus O'Sullivan, himself a product of the Irish pipeline, about the options facing Irish athletes. The article below appeared in the March 28th edition of The Irish Times

Old path of the US scholarship has changed its emphasis

ATHLETICS: Cork’s first great O’Sullivan, Marcus, coach at Villanova, on the options for young athletes, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

THURSDAY was Careers Night in De La Salle, Churchtown and they invited me back to the old school to champion the merits of sports journalism. Little did they realise it was only after failing at several other careers I ended up in this thankless trade, and hardly a day goes by without me wondering what might have been. I also have an Ivy League degree in biology, you know.

After leaving the cream of scholarly America behind me – as in rich, and thick – it eventually transpired that sport, and more specifically athletics, would probably see me through until the end. If I never made a penny from all those years of running, I may as well make some money writing about it, or at least pretend I learnt something while on scholarship in America.

So, after knocking on countless doors, the Sports Editor in here agreed to give me a work placement – and 12 years later I’m still here (he has promised to start paying me one of these days).

It quickly became apparent that in sports journalism, like in acting, the work doesn’t come to you, but rather the other way around: anyone trying to make it in this business better stand up there and be creative.

One of my first proposals was to retrace the American scholarship route, the product line of so many famous Irish distance runners, and with that in mind booked a flight to New York. The plan was to take in the Millrose Games, then visit Marcus O’Sullivan, who had just been appointed head coach at Villanova, his alma mater, about 12 miles outside Philadelphia. It was January 1999, and O’Sullivan had taken on possibly the most famous distance running programme in America, which not only helped produce Irish champions such as Ronnie Delany, Frank Murphy, Eamonn Coghlan and Sonia O’Sullivan – plus of course O’Sullivan himself – but also 32 American Olympians and 50 world record holders, mainly under the tutelage of Jumbo Elliott, head coach for 47 years until his death in 1981.

By cosmic coincidence, O’Sullivan was back in Ireland this week, on what is loosely termed “a recruiting trip”, and we chatted once again about the issue of American scholarships. It’s now his 13th season in charge of Villanova, and while O’Sullivan has helped rebuild the programme to its former glories, there’s not a single Irish athlete on his roster (unless we somehow include his son, Chris, a runner too, in his first year at Villanova).

Although he remains enthusiastic about recruiting young Irish distance runners, O’Sullivan admits the scene has changed, considerably so – not just in America, but in Ireland too.

“America is still a viable option, definitely,” he says, “but it has to be looked at a little differently. In fact, I don’t know if it was always looked at the right way. First of all, recruiting, for me, is much more than looking for talent. I’m looking for character. For “fit”.

“What I mean by that is, over my years in America, I could instinctively tell the kids out here that shouldn’t be, and others, like myself, that should. And it wasn’t all to do with running, but education, cultural exposure, making a new start.

“So I’m not necessarily looking for a talented Irish kid. I’m looking for a kid that fits into the programme, an athlete that I can help, as much as can help Villanova. So a lot of times when we’ve reached out globally we’ve gone beyond Ireland, because that’s the best fit. Right now we have three New Zealand guys on the team, and one from Australia. We’ve also a girl from Serbia, and one from Canada.”

It used to be that Irish distance runners were recruited on talent alone, why so many American coaches recruited here in the first place. These days they don’t have to look as far: American distance running is booming, and suddenly the Irish talent doesn’t look nearly as exciting, even for a coach with such strong Irish affiliation as O’Sullivan.

“Running has exploded in America. Take this indoor season. If a college kid wasn’t running under 4:01 in the mile he wouldn’t make the top-40. Or 13:57 for 5,000 metres didn’t score at the NCAAs. It’s phenomenal. That comes down to coaching, which is far better now than it’s ever been in America, starting at high school level. The internet age has brought it all together too, in that all the information is out there in the arena, and accessible.

“At the same time, look at Ireland. There are 10 times the opportunities here now, compared to 20 years ago. Look at the programme in DCU, for example. So the American scholarship is no longer the only option. It’s more of a supplement. It still has great opportunities, in terms of racing, to really learn that trade, but it’s not the only thing available.”

When O’Sullivan left for Villanova in 1980 it was the only option, in more ways than one. He’d left school and was already working in Cork, and the offer of a scholarship wouldn’t just better his running career, but his entire life. And he maximised it, building a brilliant career that included three World Indoor titles over 1,500 metres, four Olympics, six Wannamaker Mile titles, and his favourite of all: 100 sub-four miles, a figure only three men in history have achieved.

“Villanova was an incredible opportunity for me,” he says, “that’s kept me going for the last 30 years. It was a new life, an opportunity to go to college I would never have got at home. But Ireland has blossomed so much in the last 10 or 15 years, there are so many more of those opportunities here now.”

The bottom line, however, is whether Irish athletes are still good enough to make it in America, given standards here have fallen back, or at least the depth has: “Well I think it has, yes. Having said that, I know there are coaches here doing a terrific job. When I sit down to talk with them, about the technical aspects of coaching, they’re bang on. At the same time, I think the volunteering element is not as strong as it used to be.

“But I’ve been home this week, and all I’ve been hearing on the radio is rugby, soccer. Cricket even. There is a lot of sporting activity going on here, and athletics is not emphasised like it was 20 years ago. That’s not just an Irish thing.

“And I wouldn’t say kids here have gotten soft. Youngsters today have so much more going on in their lives, everywhere, America included of course. Mobile phones, iPods. It’s great stimulus, don’t get me wrong.

“But I think our energies have been somewhat diluted. The space between where you are, and where you want to go, I call that the ‘gap of motivation’. It’s what you fill that space with that gets you to the end result. We didn’t have much in that gap, say 20 years ago. So nearly all our drive and energy went into running.

“But quite frankly I don’t think we fully appreciated what we had either. The likes of myself and Eamonn, Frank O’Mara, Ray Flynn and John Treacy. We didn’t realise just how golden an era that was. That’s not saying it won’t come back again. Because we’re still well capable of producing it.”

He turns 50 this year, and although O’Sullivan admits he’s still learning – “the longer I’m in this game, the more I realise how little I know” – it’s hard to tell if another champion Irish distance runner will come out of Villanova.

I’ll check in with him again in a few years, if I’m still in the business myself.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Colorado's Jessica Pixler won the women's 5000 meter race last night at the Stanford Invitational, improving her time from last year's race by 19 seconds. Pixler won 12 NCAA Division II national titles before transferring last fall to Colorado for her final season of eligibility. Jennifer Rhines, dropping down in distance from her longer road races over the winter (where she won two half-marathons and a 15K in recent weeks), was second. Rhines led the entire race, often by a large margin (she had an 8 second lead at 3200 meters), but Pixler had greater turnover and caught Jen with one lap to go. When Pixler went by, Rhines did not respond.

After an amazing track career at Roslyn High School, where she received national recognition for her heroics in long distance running, Emily earned a scholarship to Villanova University, which for decades has featured one of the finest track programs in the nation.

From left to right Sheila Reid, Emily Lipari, Adrianne Neutts, and Christie Verdier.At Villanova, Emily has continued her championship ways. Running for both the Cross Country and Distance Medley Relay (DMR) teams, Emily has helped Villanova relay squads win two national titles. The most recent one came at a meet on March 11 at the Texas A & M campus in College Station, TX.

In what her coaches describes as “an incredible race,” the Villanova women’s track team claimed a national championship in the DMR at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station. The victory represents the second national title in the DMR for the Wildcats this year and the program’s 19th indoor title in its illustrious history.

Emily was joined on the medley team by fellow Long Islander, junior Christie Verdier of Baldwin, plus sophomore Ariann Neutts of Succasunna, NJ and senior Sheila Reid of Newmarket, Ontario. The team finished the relay with a school-record time of 10:52.52 and came in ahead of second place Oregon by a margin of just 0.38 seconds. In addition, the winning time breaks a school record that had stood for 23 years. Furthermore, the new mark is the second fastest ever run in NCAA competition, behind only the collegiate record set by the University of Tennessee in 2009.

Emily got her team off to a fast start, with a 1200 meter split time of 3:21.83. That had the Wildcats in third place, only 1.31 seconds behind the leader. The run by Emily was typical of her recent performances as she sprinted past four runners in the final 200 meters of her opening leg to put Villanova in a position to take the lead. The week before at the New York City Armory, Emily, for instance, ran the lead off 1200-meter leg in 3:20.7, which many believe to be the fastest time ever run.

In the second leg, Christie Verdier moved the Wildcats into second place with 400-meter run time of 53.73. That was followed by an 800-meter run of 2:07.07 by Ariann Neutts, which left Villanova only 0.17 seconds off the pace.

That situation was quickly rectified by the anchor run of Shelia Reid, who raced into the lead, securing another national title and more glory for the Villanova track squad.

“It was a perfect race,” said an admiring Villanova head coach Gina Procaccio. “Each of our girls did their job. I am so proud of the team for running a great race and what I am most excited about is breaking the school record, which had stood since 1988. That record [of 10:54.34] had been out there for so long and it seemed for a long time like it was out of reach. To not only break it but to do so by two seconds is incredible.”

In the fall, Emily helped the Villanova’s Women’s Cross Country team capture their second consecutive National Team title.

At the Big East Winter Track conference meet held in the third week of February, Emily captured two Big East titles for Villanova: One in the Distance Medley Relay and the second one in the 4 x 800 Relay. Emily also placed second overall in the Mile event at that same meet, all of which earned her All Big East Honors in just her first year.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Here the story from Sunday's St. Augustine Record describing the 15K victories for Jen Rhines and Mo Trafeh. Early last fall Jen looked to be toast, but she has rebounded nicely, with three victories, two PRs, and two USA titles since December. Thirty-six years old and still going strong. Nine months ago her quest for a fourth US Olympic team looked like a pipe dream -- not so any more. The question now: marathon or 10,000 meters?

JACKSONVILLE -- A lot changed for Mo Trafeh in the year since his first Gate River Run title.

His speed did not.

Trafeh won his second River Run title in a row Saturday, finishing in 42 minutes, 58 seconds -- the exact time he ran in his 2010 victory. Trafeh pulled away in the second mile, cruising to the finish line outside EverBank Field.

The 25-year-old Trafeh got married three months ago and bought a house in Casablanca, Morocco. The $17,000 he won Saturday should help with the mortgage payments.

Trafeh, who lives and trains for part of the year near Los Angeles, said he knew the pressure was on him as the defending U.S. 15K national champion.

"This race, I felt it. All these guys are looking for me," he said. "They're probably just waiting to see what I'm going to do."

Jennifer Rhines, 36, easily won her third women's title at the 9.3-mile River Run, taking command after the fifth mile and finishing in 49:31.

"It was good for me to come in as the favorite and execute," said Rhines, who earned her first professional victory at the 1998 River Run and won again in 2005. She won $12,000 for her victory Saturday.

"I won Houston at the start of the year, and my training has only continued to get better."

Rhines and the rest of the elite women had a six-minute head start on the men's field. Trafeh ran them all down, passing Rhines just over the crest of the Hart Bridge to claim the $5,000 equalizer bonus on top of the $12,000 men's prize.

With Trafeh sprinting to the title, the real race was for second place. Ben True and Aaron Braun led a pack of three men stalking Trafeh most of the race. By the seventh mile, True and Braun were the only men within 100 yards of the leader. True said he realized then that no one was catching Trafeh on Saturday.

"Coming up that final hill, I was making sure I was going to conserve as much energy as possible, because I knew it was going to come down to a kick," True said.

True beat Braun by one second in a sprint to the finish. True finished in43:25 -- 27 seconds behind Trafeh.

Nan Kennard took second in the women's race, 25 seconds behind Rhines, and just one second ahead of third-place finisher Megan Hogan. Colleen De Reuck, a former River Run women's champion, won the masters title in 52:47. Tracy Lokken won his second men's masters title in 47:40.

No one was fast enough to stop Trafeh and Rhines from continuing their dominance in U.S. championship races this year. The runners, both drug tested by the United States Anti-Doping Agency after the race, also claimed the men's and women's titles at the Houston Half Marathon Championships in January.

"You can't get any better than this. It gives me a lot of confidence for London," Trafeh said.

Trafeh plans to run the London Marathon on April 17 in his first attempt at the distance. He said he would be satisfied with a time below 2 hours, 10 minutes, in his attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

At the 34th annual River Run, Trafeh didn't expect to push a strong early pace, and he had doubts when he made his move after the first mile.

"I was like, 'what am I doing? What am I doing? This is too early,' " Trafeh said.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tom Trainer, a Pennsylvania All-State performer in Cross Country and track, has committed to run for Marcus O'Sullivan's men's squad. Trainer, of LaSalle College High School in the Philadelphia suburbs, recently finished as Pennsylvania state runner-up at 3000 meters, where his 8:35.45 run at the state indoor meet set a school record and currently ranks as the #4 time in the USA. Trainer was also All-State in cross country for 2010. After winning the state district meet at Belmont Plateau in 16:14.88, Trainer finished 17th at the state XC meet in November. At the state cross country meet, Trainer ran 16:24 over the 5K course, 30 seconds behind state champion Ryan Gil. His 5K cross country PR is 15:46. At LaSalle, Trainer is being coached by Greg Bielecki, who was a three-time All-American at Haverford College.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The NCAA 3000 meter race came down to a three-person thriller, and Jordan Hasay outsprinted Villanova's Sheila Reid and Stony Brook's Lucy Van Dalen. The top three were all within 4/10ths of a second. Hasay also won today's NCAA mile championship, after being outrun by Reid last night on the DMR anchor. Like many championship races, the pace was well off the competitors' PRs (Reid and Van Dalen had run under 9:00 during the season) and assumed a "sit and kick" style. Villanova's Bogdana Mimic finished 11th in 9:22.73.

Jen Rhines won her third race in a row, including her second USA title, today in Jacksonville, Florida. It's the third USA 15K title of her career (the others: 1998 in 51:00, and 2005 in 49:21). Jen won comfortably, by 25 seconds, in 49:31.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Villanova and Oregon waged an epic battle tonight in the Women's NCAA Distance Medley Relay championship race. Oregon was a split second ahead after three legs and Oregon's Jordan Hasay and Villanova's Sheila Reid waged a 1600 battle for ages. Reid was able to turn a .17 second deficit into 0.38 second victory by topping Hasay in the final straight. Third place Virginia was 7 seconds back. The Villanova foursome ran the second fastest NCAA DMR of all time, and set a new Villanova school record (breaking the old record of 10:54.34 from 1988).

The Villanova men came into the meet seeded 11th in the DMR and exceeded that seed by finishing 7th and earning All-American honors. The race was marked by extremely fast 1600 splits, with Indiana's Andrew Bayer running a 3:53.29 final leg. Villanova's line-up was slightly altered as Brian Tetreault ran the opening 1200 in the place of Matthew Gibney, who competed in the mile heats earlier in the day. Tetreault ran well, passing the baton in 4th place. Mathew Mildenhall got the baton for the anchor in 8th place, but ran a solid 3:59.30 1600 leg, good for a 7th place overall finish.

Matt Gibney finished 7th in his mile heat today, running 4:02.25. Gibney's heat was the faster of the two heats and both runners who qualified for the final on time were from the heat. However, finishing 7th doomed Gibney's chances as the top four finishers from each heat and the next two fastest times would qualify for the finals. Gibney is back in action tonight, as the lead-off 1200 leg of the men's DMR.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Jennifer Rhines, in the midst of a two-race winning streak, including her 2011 USA Half Marathon Championship title won in late January, will try Saturday to win her third USA 15K title in Jacksonville. In December, Rhines won the 2010 Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon and followed that win in late January by running a 1:11:14 PR to win the USA Half Marathon title over Katie McGregor, Magdalena Boulet and others. She'll try Saturday to repeat her 15K USA titles of 1998 (51:00) and 2005 (49:21). Here is the tease from USA Track and Field.

INDIANAPOLIS - Defending champions Mo Trafeh (Duarte, Calif.) and Katie McGregor (Minneapolis, Minn.) return to Jacksonville, Florida to defend their USA 15 km Crowns Saturday at the 34th annual Gate River Run. This year marks the 18th year that the event has hosted the championships.

McGregor will face a field that includes two-time 15 km champion Jen Rhines (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), who started her 2011 USA Running Circuit campaign with a win at the USA Half Marathon Championships in Houston on January 29.

Also in the hunt for the women's title will be 2004 USA 15 km Champion Colleen De Reuck (Boulder, Colo.); Nan Kennard (Boulder, Colo.), the third-place finisher at this year's half marathon championships; and Clara Grandt (Waldorf, Md.), who finished sixth in Houston.

On the men's side, Trafeh, this year's male half marathon champion, returns to Jacksonville where he dominated the field last year with a 54 second win. Looking to challenge Trafeh this year will be 2008 champion Andrew Carlson (Minneapolis, Minn.); 2008 Olympian Jorge Torres (Boulder, Colo.); 2010 USA 20 km champion Sean Quigley (Philadelphia, Pa.); 2010 USA 10 Mile champion Fasil Bizuneh (Flagstaff, Ariz.); and two-time U.S. Cross Country Team member Scott Bauhs (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.).

Video highlights:

The USA 15 km Championships will be streamed live beginning at 8:20 a.m. EST in cooperation with RunnerSpace.com at www.USARunningCircuit.com.

Here are the start lists for Villanova's competitors at the NCAA Indoor Championships. On Friday Matt Gibney will run in the first preliminary heat of the mile at 4:15 and then come back that night at 8:40 to run the 1200 leg of the DMR. Friday night will also see the women's DMR at 8:20 p.m. On Saturday, Sheila Reid and Bogdana Mimic will run in the 3000 meter final at 6:40 p.m.

With regard to Villanova's competitors, Oregon's Alex Kosinksi has withdrawn from the meet with a possible stress fracture, so she won't compete in the women's 3000 meters or as anchor of Oregon's DMR squad.

ESPN3.com will stream live portions of the event with NCAA.com/aggieathletics.com streaming the remainder. The schedule is as follows:

Monday, March 7, 2011

The NCAA Division 1 declarations have just been posted, and Villanova's DMR squad, sitting at 11th fastest in the country but without an NCAA automatic qualifier, has been invited to the national meet. The NCAA has accepted the following 12 teams:

The senior went undefeated among collegians at distances from 1,000 to 3,000 meters during the regular season, and she ranks number two in the country over 3,000 meters. Reid won the BIG EAST Conference title in the 1,000 meters in meet-record fashion, as well as running on the winning 4×800-meter and distance medley relays. Reid is from Newmarket, Ontario.

Matt Gibney, Sheila Reid, and Bogdana Mimic are Villanova's individual qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championship meet, hosted in College Station by Pat Henry's Texas A&M Aggies. Here are the NCAA automatic qualifiers in their events. The women's DMR has the fastest time in the country this year (and #3 all-time), but the men's DMR fell short of the automatic qualifying time and must await the decision on their participation in the national meet.

Bogdana Mimic joined Sheila Reid (3000 meters) and Matt Gibney (mile) as Villanova's only individual automatic qualifiers for the NCAA indoor championships by running 9:10.64 over 3000 meters at the Armory. Her time places her no. 7 on the NCAA Division 1 performance list heading into the championship meet in College Station, Texas on March 11-12. In the same race, Ali Smith ran 9:20.10 (33rd in the NCAA this season), good for fifth. The Villanova women have also qualified their NCAA #1 DMR squad, while the men await word today on the status of their 11th ranked DMR.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Legendary Irish gold medalist and Villanova great Ronnie Delany today celebrates his 76th birthday. The 7th man in history to break the 4:00 barrier for the mile, and holder of world records, Delany's crowning accomplishment in athletics was winning the 1956 gold medal in the 1500 meters at the Melbourne Olympiad. He was immediately elevated to Catholic sainthood in his native Ireland and on Lancaster Pike in Villanova, PA. Here is a very nice biographical narrative:

Ronald Michael Delany was born near Arklow in Co. Wicklow on March 6, 1935, but he grew up in Sandymount, Dublin, and the fact that this area was strong when it came to sport probably played a significant role in his development as an athlete of considerable talent.

Ronnie’s Meath links are very strong as his father, Patrick Anthony (PA), was born at Growtown, Batterstown, in the early part of the last century and is buried there. Ronnie still has five cousins living there, while his brother Paddy resides at Lynaghstown, Batterstown, close to The Hatchet.

He fondly recalls summer holidays as a youngster spent at Growtown, where shooting was a hobby, and visiting an elderly aunt, Annie Delany, at Alexandereid, just outside Navan.

The former Olympic champion can also recall a memorable era for Meath football and remembers Brian Smyth playing for the county and captaining them to the All-Ireland senior title in 1949 - Meath’s historic breakthrough in the grade. Peter McDermott, captain of the team that brought the Sam Maguire Cup to the county for the second time in 1954, is another star player of that era he remembers lining out for the Royal County.

"I was fed on good Meath eggs, fresh country eggs," Ronnie joked.

When Delany crossed the finish line in Melbourne almost half a century ago he became the first Irish athlete since Bob Tisdall (400 metres hurdles) and Pat O’Callaghan (hammer) in the Los Angeles Games of 1932 to claim Olympic gold.

The Crusaders’ clubman, who was always renowned for his tremendous finishing speed, produced a blistering last 200 metres of 25.6 seconds in the final and that helped him to an Olympic record of 3:41.2. The German Klaus Richtzenhain finished second and that great Australian athlete John Landy, who had set world records over both 1,500 metres and the mile in the summer of 1954, was third.

It’s remarkable to think that only a matter of months before his tremendous triumph in Melbourne there were those who thought Delany’s form didn’t merit a trip to the Olympics. During the summer he had lost two mile races to his big English rival Brian Hewson in College Park, Dublin, but Delany went on to demonstrate just how foolish it would have been to leave him out of Ireland’s Olympic team.

Delany, who had to obtain special leave of absence from Villanova University in the United States to travel to Melbourne, qualified for the 1,500 metres final comfortably from the second heat which was won by Australian Merv Lincoln in 3:45.4 from Britain’s Ken Wood, with the Irish man clocking a time of 3:47.7.

A field of 12 runners lined up for the final on a warm and still December afternoon and most eyes were on the immensely talented Landy who carried with him around the three and three-quarter laps most of the hopes of the home country.

Murray Halberg of New Zealand led from Hewson after the opening 400 metres, with Delany content to sit back in second last place. With two laps remaining Lincoln was out in front and running strongly, while Delany had only two athletes behind him and was clearly going to need to call on that renowned finishing speed if he was to claim a medal for Ireland.

The sound of the bell to signal the start of the final lap is usually also the signal for these races to really heat up, but there was no bell as the official in charge got too excited by the action on the track and forgot to shake it.

By this stage Hewson and Lincoln were disputing the lead and Delany was 10th, but only a matter of a few strides off the pace. With 200 metres to go Delany’s great speed really came into play and it needed to because Hewson was all of eight yards clear of the pack.

The Irish man was making relentless progress and by the time they reached the last bend he had moved into second position and had only his great rival Hewson in front of him. As Delany surged to the front to take the gold medal, the unfortunate Hewson faded back into fourth place - the most dreaded of all positions in a final.

That tremendous victory was the highlight of a wonderfully successful Melbourne Olympics for a very small Irish team comprising of only 12 representatives in all and just three athletes - Delany, hurdler Eamonn Kinsella and track runner Maeve Kyle.

Apart from Delany’s gold there were four medals in boxing - Fred Teidt’s silver and bronze for Tony Byrne, Freddie Gilroy and John Caldwell.

Athletes and cyclists in Ireland were bitterly divided in those years and the internationally outlawed NCA sent a cycling team on the long trip to Melbourne, but the three riders weren’t allowed to take part.

As for media coverage of the Melbourne Olympics, there was only one travelling journalist from this country, Arthur P. McWeeney of the Irish Independent, and people back home depended on the old BBC Light Programme for live coverage on the radio. Delany’s 1,500 metres victory was relayed to Ireland at breakfast time. Just imagine the excitement on that crackling machine as the Irishman raced to glory.

That fantastic triumph Down Under represented the pinnacle of Delany’s athletics career, but there were many other high points for a man who became involved in athletics through his older brother Joe who participated in events such as the 220 and 440 yards and the high jump and long jump.Brendan Hennessy and Jack Sweeney were influential figures during the early years of Ronnie’s career and he was coached by the renowned Jumbo Elliott during his time at Villanova University.

His first achievement of note came when he qualified for the final of the 800 metres at the 1954 European Championships in Berne, before deciding to try his hand at the mile the following year. Delany’s acceptance of a scholarship offer to Villanova was a big stepping-stone in his career and in his first outing over a mile he set a new Irish record of 4:5.8 at College Park and another milestone was reached on June 1, 1956 when, at the age of 21, he became the youngest man to run the distance in under four minutes, clocking 3:59.0 in Compton, USA, and beating Gunnar Nielsen of Denmark in the process.

Delany was the winner of four successive AAU titles over the mile in North America, thus adding to his tally of four Irish national titles and three NCAA titles.

In 1958 he took the bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the European Championships with a clocking of 3:42.3, as winner Hewson gained some measure of compensation for the disappointment in Melbourne, while also among his successes was a victory over 800 metres in the World Student Games in a time of 1:51.1.

The Crusaders’ athlete broke the indoor world record for the mile on no fewer that four occasions in the late 1950s and set a European indoor record of 3:51.0 over 1,500 metres in 1957.

Apart from that never to be forgotten trip to Melbourne and his great triumph in 1956, Delany represented Ireland in one other Olympic Games. That was in Rome four years later when he ran in the 800 metres and, affected by every athlete’s biggest dread, injury, he was eliminated at the semi-final stage.

Delany retired from competitive athletics in 1962 and what great memories he must have brought with him to that retirement - particularly of that historic afternoon in Melbourne six years earlier.

As an athlete he was gifted and he was also a tremendous ambassador for this country.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Villanova DMR squad of Emily Lipari, Christie Verdier, Ariann Neutts, and Sheila Reid ran the third fastest DMR in NCAA history last night at the Armory in New York City. Villanova now owns the #2 and #3 all-time DMR times: last night's time was less than 2 seconds off the Villanova school record of 10:54.34 set in 1988, which stood as the NCAA record for over 20 years. Emily Lipari's opening 1200 in 3:20.7 is thought to be an all-time best indoor split. By way of comparison, Tennessee's incomparable Phoebe Wright ran the 1200 leg at last year's NCAA indoor championships, which Tennessee won. Her split was 3:22.21 -- a second-and-a-half slower than Lipari's split last night. Two former Wildcats were also in the race. Nicole Schappert and Frances Koons ran the 800 and 1600 legs, respectively, on the NY-NJ Track Club coached by Frank Gagliano, which finished second. Here's the story from Jack Pfeifer at the Armory in New York City, with full results at the bottom:

Started by what may have been the fastest leadoff 1,200 leg ever run indoors, Villanova went on to run 10:56.12 in the women’s distance medley relay Friday night on Day 1 of the Columbia Last Chance meet at the Armory in New York, pulling three other teams under the magical 11-minute barrier with them.

In a race intended as an attempt to get under the NCAA auto-qualifying time of 11:05.50, four teams did just that, and went way under in the process. Virginia (10:59.33), Connecticut (10:59.99) and Georgetown (11:00.67) all broke their school records. When the season began, UConn’s had been 11:35. The Cavaliers and Huskies became just the eighth and ninth college teams ever to break 11:00. Villanova remarkably was the one school that did not set a school record, because that mark remains the 10:54.34 from 1988, a time that was the collegiate record for more than 20 years. The 10:56.12 becomes the 3rd-fastest ever run, behind the 1988 time and Tennessee’s 10:50.98 world best two years ago.

The race got going right away with a 2:13 opening 800 by Renee Tomlin, who gave way to Leah Andrianos of UConn and Rachel Schneider of Georgetown, as Morgane Gay of Virginia and Emily Lipari of Villanova began to fall back in the withering pace. But Lipari, the freshman from Long Island, exploded past everyone on the final lap, splitting 3:20.7 for the leadoff 1,200, believed to be the fastest ever run under cover. Andrianos merely ran 3:21.2, Schneider 3:21.5, Julie Culley of the NJ/NY Track Club 3:22.3 and Gay, trying to keep UVA close, phenomenally only fifth with a very fast 3:23.0.

Christie Verdier kept Villanova in front with a fine 54.2 400 leg, but on the final 200 of the 800 3rd leg, the Wildcats’ Adrian Neutts (2:09.5) faded to the back, while Lyndsay Harper ran 2:05.0 to put Virginia back in the race.

On the anchor, Villanova’s Sheila Reid bided her time, came up on the shoulder of NJ/NY’s Frances Koons at the bell, and ran away with the win, relaxing down the homestretch in celebration as she could see the time in front of her on the scoreboard clock. She split 4:31.7 as all five anchor runners went under 4:40. Coach Frank Gagliano’s team of Culley, Latavia Thomas (53.6), Nicole Schappert (2:06.7) and Koons (4:35.9) ran the fastest ever by a club team, 10:58.49, well under the previous best, 11:09.86 by the Reebok Enclave 12 years ago.

National picture

Nationally, this result had major ramifications, because in the only other Last Chance Meet women’s DMR being contested on this final weekend, on Friday on the oversized track at Notre Dame, the winning team, Texas Tech, ran 11:07.18, short of the auto Q. This leaves Duke 10th on the seasonal list at 11:06.85. It’s not known if the NCAA will take more than 10 teams in the event.

It is believed that the four teams from the Armory race will now conclude the regular season 1-2-3-4 atop the list, followed by the five other auto qualifiers – Oregon, BYU, Tennessee, Arkansas and Michigan. Arkansas and BYU also got their Q’s at the Armory, finishing 1-2 at the in February at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational.

There was no men’s DMR Friday at the New York meet. Instead, as is the custom, teams looking to qualify converged on Notre Dame, where just three teams got under the rigorous standard of 9:32.00 – Minnesota, New Mexico and Notre Dame. Air Force just missed, running 9:32.06. It now stands 10th on the seasonal list. Villanova ran 9:33.50 and stands 11th. Other Eastern teams that fell short at ND were Virginia (9:34), Princeton (9:35) and Penn State (9:35).

Friday, March 4, 2011

The NCAA auto qualifier for the DMR is 9:32.00 and the Villanova quartet of Matt Gibney (1200), Carlton Bowers (400), Jason Apwah (800), and Mathew Mildenhall (1600) finished fourth in their heat and fifth overall tonight in 9:33.50 at the University of Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational. The result ranks the Villanova men at #11 in the NCAA and places team at risk of not being selected for the national indoor championships. Nine teams have secured automatic qualifiers, and Air Force is currently sitting at the #10 spot. "We are more or less on the bubble after our race today," Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan said. "We will find out in a couple of days whether we have made it into the NCAA Championships or not." Tonight's time was 18 seconds faster than the time posted at the Big East indoor meet (9:51.68), when Matt Wikler and Christopher Kearney ran the 1200 and 400 legs, respectively.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Former Villanova All-American Marina Muncan will represent her native Serbia in the 1500 meters at this weekend's European Indoor Championships in Paris. Muncan is the Serbian national record holder at both 1500 meters (4:08.06) and the mile (4:31.84). Marina has had an excellent indoor season so far, winning the 800 at Boston University's Valentine Invitational (2:05.75), the 1000 at the Hoya Spiked Shoe Invitational in Bethesda, MD (2:48.19), and the mile at the New Balance Grand Prix in Boston (4:34.46). She also set a new indoor mile PR (4:31.84) in coming fifth at the New Balance Games in New York City. Below are the entries at 1500 meters.